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strong likes, strong dislikes, and a very strong culture. And this has been seen by many of the global companies that came into India. Many came to India saying, “We have a standard set of products and services that is wonderfully honed to serve all the global markets,” and in many cases they fell flat on their faces. They did not allow for the customers’ preferences, which were engrained through many generations. McDonald’s made a change in their menu for the first time, I am told, when they came to India. And they were so successful with this change that they carried out this practice in many other nations, adapting to local tastes, flavors, and recipes. There is a whole host of examples of like this. The big move that has happened in India is that the pattern of reform is moving from the central government to the state governments. The central government backed off from many of its regular activities by stepping back, by reforming, and by reducing licensing requirements for industry and other economic activities. Many of these changes were readily adapted by state governments, as well, but not by all. In fact, in an interesting recent article an expert observed that if you draw a line approximately from the north to the south of India, between two cities he named, the areas to the left and right of the line are like two different countries. The left side, which is mostly the south, the west, and parts of northern India, is where the major growth is taking place. But although the economic numbers are high, literacy numbers are still low, and that is one of the issues that continue to dog India as a nation. There was a wonderful session this morning on higher education, and I know some of the Indian experts who are in this audience addressed that session. At the top end, India has done exceedingly well in education; people who have gone into avionics or aeronautics or software engineering or medicine obviously must have received a good education. Yet the numbers are not nearly enough for the size of our population. Now, this was a role clearly marked out for the government. Governments are required to take care of primary education, primary health care, security, monetary policy, and the like. Nevertheless, the government has not had the wherewithal to provide sufficient education to all the people, so the private sector willy-nilly stepped in and started playing a role. But the private sector cannot substitute for the government. There is a need for the government of the day—whichever it is. In the last 15 years we have had a series of coalition governments, with sometimes as many as 12, 14, or 18 parties in government together. These governments have been made up of parties from the extreme left to the extreme right and every color in between. The good thing is that all of them went down the same path of reform and of viewing growth as the only answer to all India’s ills. The not-so-good thing is that they focused on the easy part of the reform. (I am saying easy now; obviously it didn’t look easy when they were doing it.) Some of the work is still to be done. Also, the government did a wonderful job of trying to manage both the revenue deficit and the fiscal deficit, going as far as to write an act of parliament binding itself to improve the fiscal situation. They have done pretty well, barring the current problem that the whole world is seeing with high inflation and high prices for oil, food, and other base materials. The government also backed off from spending in some areas in which they ought to be spending—some of the major infrastructure projects. There are many private players, both Indian and